Recently, most hotel-management-works such as reception, reservation, check in, check out, are operated by a hotel-management system using a computer. A computer system controlling mainly hotel-management-works at a reception desk is called front office system (FOS) hereinafter.
A FOS controls a private branch exchange (PBX) and the like besides the hotel-management-works mentioned above. In general, a management system of a FOS (a FOS management system) communicates with a PBX, and controls a PBX with a command of ASCII code.
Recently, computers have progressed remarkably. A FOS has accumulated a large amount of hotel-management know-how for many days, e.g., circumstances of a hotel, customer's requirements. As a result, changing an old model of FOS management system to new one causes some troubles, and an old model of FOS management system is obliged to remain in the hotel.
On the other hand, the latest PBX can supply various services, so that a large number of old PBXs are replaced with new ones at hotels.
However, refurbishing a FOS management system for using a new PBX is complicated and troublesome. Because a large number of PBX manufacturing companies have developed PBXs and interfaces by their original command-systems and -methods, new PBXs are poorly compatible with conventional FOS management systems.
Most present FOS management systems have conventional OS or application software, and do not match a new PBX. As a result, when the new PBX is connected to a FOS management system, the following problem occurs. Even if the same ASCII codes are used for the PBX and the FOS management system as command data, description forms of command data of the PBX are different from that of the FOS management system. The new PBX thus can not recognize information or an order supplied from the FOS management system, and can not receive them. The FOS management system can not recognize information or an order supplied from the new PBX either. In a word, the new PBX and the conventional FOS management system can not work in cooperation with each other.